Saguaros n More

Hi again,
 Monday started out with Wendy having a phone interview on the job in South Dakota. More just formalities of being a paid worker. It was with Lance our supervisor from last year. Things seem to be laid out well with what Wendy wants as hours and same days off and what he expects.
 So done with that we headed out and off to Tucson. Our multiple destinations all located close by one another on the west side of Tucson.
 First was the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, this museum is ranked one of the top 10 museums in the world. It differs from most museums as its contents are outdoors and alive.
 It is like going to the zoo and a botanical garden together. It is home to over 1,200 species of plants and 56,000 individual specimens from the Sonora Desert region.

 The zoo is blended in all this featuring a hummingbird aviary,  the local coati, and javelina.

coyote

javelina

  Second destination was The Saguaro National Park. This was located just a few miles beyond the museum. Actually the park is comprised of two areas, the Tucson Mountain District(TMD) on the west side of Tucson and the Rincon Mountain District(RMD) on the east. The RMD was established in 1933 to protect a remarkable stand of saguaro cacti. The TMD was established in the 60s to also save a stand of saguaro. As they are over an hours drive apart we figured we would do the RMD  another day.

We began in the visitor center where we watched a short video on the importance of protecting the giant cacti. Wendy was happy logging another stamp in her book.

 There are numerous hiking trails and a unpaved 5 mile scenic drive. We took the scenic drive jumping out numerous times for pics. Saguaros are unbelievable, just thinking how long they have been here growing to these great heights. The arms begin to grow at about 60 years old.

petroglyphs

 Third destination( I know I know- crazy) was Old Tucson, a movie studio and theme park. A famous movie set for many westerns. Well we didn't get to that - maybe another day. I'm getting tired .